Just out of curiosity, why do you have no problem with him tracing? To me it would be like a composer copying a musical phrase, or a film director copying a scene from another movie, shot-for-shot. Homage has its place in art, but what he is doing is not the same thing.

To my knowledge he traces photos. Taking only small pieces of the complete work, changing it's medium and placing it in a new context. It's like a composer stealing the 8 notes of melody from a classical flute solo using it as the basis for a guitar driven rock piece. Or: every song is Canon in D.

Your knowledge is wrong, though. In the example linked to, he's clearly ripped-off Jim Lee and, in other instances, he re-used his own work.

Okay, so maybe he meets deadlines, but so do a whole host of other artists who can draw well, have their art fit the script, tell a story and have movement in their figures. There's no reason why he can't be replaced by someone else...unless putting Maxim models in superhero costumes is part of Marvel's editorial mandate.

In other words, he's incapable of drawing and has to resort to tracing? That's my interpretation of it. I mean, all good artists should use photo reference, but to understand what an object or person looks like, how it's/their form exists in three-dimensional space. Anybody can trace a photograph.

He could use collage for all I care. The important question is: does his work tell the story well? When he fails to do so, and he has, I consider that to be bad comic work.

Is he a good illustrator? Not remotely. He traces. His work, while technically accurate, is lacking in style and personality. But it can do the job. Do others do the job better? Absolutely. But he can get the job done.

In an industry which still allows Liefeld to publish, we could do worse than Land. We can certainly do better, but we could do worse.